OSU's Farm Science Review
This is an experimental post. I put some videos in here so hopefully I can get them to work. It took a long time for them to load so I am curious as to what the outcome is. I did take them with my Canon S2-IS though, so they aren't high-quality videos.
The Farm Science Review this year was really great for a couple of reasons. I knew ahead of time that my professors were going to be out there assisting with the actual event. So I wanted to get out there and meet up with them in the fields. The second reason is I am getting in to the Agricultural Equipment industry after I graduate (hence being in the ag program at OSU). So I wanted to familiarize myself with some of the equipment in real-life again. If you read my post last year on the Farm Science Review I was after learning as much as I could then also. I am a Green and Yellow guy, to me a tractor isn't a tractor unless it is those two colors.
I will be a bit brief with some of the rest of the event and let the pictures do the talking. These are more or less in order as to when I took them in my day at the Farm Science Review.
Here is Caterpillar's top-of-the-food-chain combine - this thing is huge! Although, it still isn't green and yellow.
I thought this was pretty cool. It is a mini front loader with an articulating chassis for better maneuverability. It is a bit different approach to small equipment compared to the Bobcat skid-steer.
Ah, yes - some Green and Yellow (no, not the shopping bags).
This is John Deere's king-size sprayer - the 4930. The boom on this thing is gigantic. Getting it in the viewfinder was a bit of a challenge, as was dodging pedestrians and golf carts trying to figure it out. It reminds me of the old Transformer toys. You flip a switch and the whole thing folds up like a clam. They did a couple of folding cycles and it really is something else. When you are farming thousands of acres equipment gets big - REALLY big. So does the price. At a base price of $340,000 you better have an operation big enough to support that cost. I bet such a farmer would also be using AMS.
I wonder how quick TruGreen/ChemLawn could spray a yard with this contraption... Lets see - start in the back yard, straddle the house, and finish up in the front. One pass and you're done!
This is one of John Deere's new series' tractors - the 8345RT. Last year John Deere didn't have any of their track tractors on display, but they had this 8 series this year. John Deere is going through a re-design on their tractors as well as re-naming them. The series number is still basically valid, but the model numbers are different. Before, this tractor may have been listed as an 8430T, pronounced "Eighty-Four Thirty T". What the number doesn't tell you is the equipment level and horsepower of the tractor. So, now, with this 8345RT you have that. The model is pronounced "Eight Three Forty-Five R T". The "345" is the approximate horsepower and the R is the equipment level. The T just means it is a track version. Both the 8 and 9 series (previously the 8000 and 9000 series) are available as a track version or wheel version.
I would assume that the re-naming process will work it's way through the whole tractor line-up, from the 2000 series (compact utility tractors) to the 9000 series (kings of the farm).
9570 STS combine with a 6-row corn head
I believe this is a small-frame 7 series, either that or a 6. I didn't get a shot of the side so I can't see the number. Anyway, most of the large farm tractors - even up through the large frame 7's and 8's - can have loaders put on them. I guess if you have some serious materials moving I could see using one. You could probably lift a car with this one.
On to the fields. This is where I spent most of my time.
I knew one of my professors was coordinating the corn harvest demos at 12:30 so I worked my way over there a bit early to see if they needed any help with anything. I didn't know that the tractors were going to start driving people back in there closer to the start time. Otherwise I wouldn't have walked all of this:
I don't know if you can tell or not, but if you look past the row of tractors to the right of the lone tree you can see the road. Follow that back behind the house and that is where I got off. Oh well, that's nothing compared to 10 miles with a 60lb pack through the Appalachian mountains. It's good exercise! I still had about 400 yards to go at this point.
Ah. Finally, some combines.
Here are a couple videos I took of the John Deere combine. I love the turbo diesel engine.
.
In the second video here you can hear the turbo wind down, just like a jet. If you think your Subaru is cool with a turbocharger this green machine would chew it up and fart it out!
Here is a zoomed in shot of the grain bin. This filled up after about 4 passes. I was wanting to see if they were going to do any continuous off-load (what the arm pointed out the back of the combine on the left side is for), running a grain cart and tractor along side, but they just filled the bin and then off-loaded it to a cart at a later time. From what my professor said they were trying to spread out the processes so that they could have demonstrations of everything.
If you read my post before the event I was curious as to what the moisture content was. Apparently it was about 21%, not too bad.
Here is a 9330. This is the largest series John Deere tractor, but not the biggest in the series. If I remember right this one is 375hp, and they go up to 530hp. The implement is a 2700 Mulch Ripper. It is a combination tillage implement doing three jobs in one - breaking up the surface soil in the front with a disk, some deep vertical tillage with the ripper tines, and another run with a disk to even it out. The 9330 is overkill for this implement, a smaller machine would be a better match from a hp/efficiency standpoint.
This was also the unit that was demonstrating the GreenStar RTK guidance system. You can hear the whine of the turbo diesel engine here also, it's incredible. The whole operation is computer controlled. I didn't get much in this video. I should have started sooner to catch the whole turning sequence, but this is what I got:
If you pay attention at the very beginning you can see the tractor completing the turn and the ripper dropping, then throttling back up. All of this is controlled with iTEC pro, one of the GreenStar guidance system applications. The operator just has to monitor the system and keep it going with command prompts. Theoretically, there is no operator input to control the operation. For safety, the system must continually ask the operator for a check prompt in case the operator falls asleep or is incapacitated somehow the tractor will shut down. Its like cruise control on a car, only it steers, brakes, and controls the implement in addition to throttle control, all while maintaining less than 1 inch of accuracy with RTK correction.
The yellow dome above the front of the cab is the GPS receiver. Side note - I am 5'11" and I was standing when I took this shot, just for some perspective.
Back to the main area. I thought this portable mill was pretty cool. I have seen these before and would love to get to play with one of these. It is like a giant chainsaw on a track. Note the V-twin engine.
These are seeders for small grains/grasses and for smaller tractors. You could probably pull the one on the left with an ATV since it is a pull-behind (as opposed to an integral 3-point design to the right).
This would be a fun lawn mower:
That is a large frame 7000 series and an CX20 cutter, the largest heavy-duty brush mower John Deere makes. If you have some serious acreage that needs serious mowing this is the tool to use.
Here is the smallest conventional chassis compact tractor John Deere makes, the 2320. This will probably be my first tractor, or between this and the 2720. The 2305 is even smaller, with the same 24hp, but it is an ultra-compact tractor and limited in implement selection. I have operated a Terramite T-7 TLB before and this 2320 feels about the same size. You don't really get a sense of the size of this equipment until you get on it. This tractor came across as much bigger than I had imagined.
One of the really cool and beneficial implements for the conventional 2000 series tractors are the drive-over OnRamp mower decks. My dad's lawn tractor has a removable deck on it - just pull a couple of pins and disconnect the belt. The problem with it is always getting it underneath and back out. We use the tractor in the winter for plowing snow so every season we go through a cycle with the deck installation/removal (and I'm always the one to do it). Having the OnRamp decks available means you can drive right over the deck to put it on and take it off. There is no rolling, sliding, wedging, shoving the deck underneath and out from under the tractor.
So that about sum's up my Farm Science Review visit this year. You can bet I will get back next year! I got to see a lot and I learned a lot. Although, I will be seeing lots of Green and Yellow in the coming months.
The Farm Science Review this year was really great for a couple of reasons. I knew ahead of time that my professors were going to be out there assisting with the actual event. So I wanted to get out there and meet up with them in the fields. The second reason is I am getting in to the Agricultural Equipment industry after I graduate (hence being in the ag program at OSU). So I wanted to familiarize myself with some of the equipment in real-life again. If you read my post last year on the Farm Science Review I was after learning as much as I could then also. I am a Green and Yellow guy, to me a tractor isn't a tractor unless it is those two colors.
I will be a bit brief with some of the rest of the event and let the pictures do the talking. These are more or less in order as to when I took them in my day at the Farm Science Review.
Here is Caterpillar's top-of-the-food-chain combine - this thing is huge! Although, it still isn't green and yellow.
I thought this was pretty cool. It is a mini front loader with an articulating chassis for better maneuverability. It is a bit different approach to small equipment compared to the Bobcat skid-steer.
Ah, yes - some Green and Yellow (no, not the shopping bags).
This is John Deere's king-size sprayer - the 4930. The boom on this thing is gigantic. Getting it in the viewfinder was a bit of a challenge, as was dodging pedestrians and golf carts trying to figure it out. It reminds me of the old Transformer toys. You flip a switch and the whole thing folds up like a clam. They did a couple of folding cycles and it really is something else. When you are farming thousands of acres equipment gets big - REALLY big. So does the price. At a base price of $340,000 you better have an operation big enough to support that cost. I bet such a farmer would also be using AMS.
I wonder how quick TruGreen/ChemLawn could spray a yard with this contraption... Lets see - start in the back yard, straddle the house, and finish up in the front. One pass and you're done!
This is one of John Deere's new series' tractors - the 8345RT. Last year John Deere didn't have any of their track tractors on display, but they had this 8 series this year. John Deere is going through a re-design on their tractors as well as re-naming them. The series number is still basically valid, but the model numbers are different. Before, this tractor may have been listed as an 8430T, pronounced "Eighty-Four Thirty T". What the number doesn't tell you is the equipment level and horsepower of the tractor. So, now, with this 8345RT you have that. The model is pronounced "Eight Three Forty-Five R T". The "345" is the approximate horsepower and the R is the equipment level. The T just means it is a track version. Both the 8 and 9 series (previously the 8000 and 9000 series) are available as a track version or wheel version.
I would assume that the re-naming process will work it's way through the whole tractor line-up, from the 2000 series (compact utility tractors) to the 9000 series (kings of the farm).
9570 STS combine with a 6-row corn head
I believe this is a small-frame 7 series, either that or a 6. I didn't get a shot of the side so I can't see the number. Anyway, most of the large farm tractors - even up through the large frame 7's and 8's - can have loaders put on them. I guess if you have some serious materials moving I could see using one. You could probably lift a car with this one.
On to the fields. This is where I spent most of my time.
I knew one of my professors was coordinating the corn harvest demos at 12:30 so I worked my way over there a bit early to see if they needed any help with anything. I didn't know that the tractors were going to start driving people back in there closer to the start time. Otherwise I wouldn't have walked all of this:
I don't know if you can tell or not, but if you look past the row of tractors to the right of the lone tree you can see the road. Follow that back behind the house and that is where I got off. Oh well, that's nothing compared to 10 miles with a 60lb pack through the Appalachian mountains. It's good exercise! I still had about 400 yards to go at this point.
Ah. Finally, some combines.
Here are a couple videos I took of the John Deere combine. I love the turbo diesel engine.
.
In the second video here you can hear the turbo wind down, just like a jet. If you think your Subaru is cool with a turbocharger this green machine would chew it up and fart it out!
Here is a zoomed in shot of the grain bin. This filled up after about 4 passes. I was wanting to see if they were going to do any continuous off-load (what the arm pointed out the back of the combine on the left side is for), running a grain cart and tractor along side, but they just filled the bin and then off-loaded it to a cart at a later time. From what my professor said they were trying to spread out the processes so that they could have demonstrations of everything.
If you read my post before the event I was curious as to what the moisture content was. Apparently it was about 21%, not too bad.
Here is a 9330. This is the largest series John Deere tractor, but not the biggest in the series. If I remember right this one is 375hp, and they go up to 530hp. The implement is a 2700 Mulch Ripper. It is a combination tillage implement doing three jobs in one - breaking up the surface soil in the front with a disk, some deep vertical tillage with the ripper tines, and another run with a disk to even it out. The 9330 is overkill for this implement, a smaller machine would be a better match from a hp/efficiency standpoint.
This was also the unit that was demonstrating the GreenStar RTK guidance system. You can hear the whine of the turbo diesel engine here also, it's incredible. The whole operation is computer controlled. I didn't get much in this video. I should have started sooner to catch the whole turning sequence, but this is what I got:
If you pay attention at the very beginning you can see the tractor completing the turn and the ripper dropping, then throttling back up. All of this is controlled with iTEC pro, one of the GreenStar guidance system applications. The operator just has to monitor the system and keep it going with command prompts. Theoretically, there is no operator input to control the operation. For safety, the system must continually ask the operator for a check prompt in case the operator falls asleep or is incapacitated somehow the tractor will shut down. Its like cruise control on a car, only it steers, brakes, and controls the implement in addition to throttle control, all while maintaining less than 1 inch of accuracy with RTK correction.
The yellow dome above the front of the cab is the GPS receiver. Side note - I am 5'11" and I was standing when I took this shot, just for some perspective.
Back to the main area. I thought this portable mill was pretty cool. I have seen these before and would love to get to play with one of these. It is like a giant chainsaw on a track. Note the V-twin engine.
These are seeders for small grains/grasses and for smaller tractors. You could probably pull the one on the left with an ATV since it is a pull-behind (as opposed to an integral 3-point design to the right).
This would be a fun lawn mower:
That is a large frame 7000 series and an CX20 cutter, the largest heavy-duty brush mower John Deere makes. If you have some serious acreage that needs serious mowing this is the tool to use.
Here is the smallest conventional chassis compact tractor John Deere makes, the 2320. This will probably be my first tractor, or between this and the 2720. The 2305 is even smaller, with the same 24hp, but it is an ultra-compact tractor and limited in implement selection. I have operated a Terramite T-7 TLB before and this 2320 feels about the same size. You don't really get a sense of the size of this equipment until you get on it. This tractor came across as much bigger than I had imagined.
One of the really cool and beneficial implements for the conventional 2000 series tractors are the drive-over OnRamp mower decks. My dad's lawn tractor has a removable deck on it - just pull a couple of pins and disconnect the belt. The problem with it is always getting it underneath and back out. We use the tractor in the winter for plowing snow so every season we go through a cycle with the deck installation/removal (and I'm always the one to do it). Having the OnRamp decks available means you can drive right over the deck to put it on and take it off. There is no rolling, sliding, wedging, shoving the deck underneath and out from under the tractor.
So that about sum's up my Farm Science Review visit this year. You can bet I will get back next year! I got to see a lot and I learned a lot. Although, I will be seeing lots of Green and Yellow in the coming months.
posted by Steve at
9:49 PM
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